Figure 3.

N-cadherin treadmilling sustains collective motility. N-cadherin dynamic sustains cell migration by constantly cycling from the cell rear, where it becomes internalized upon p120CTN phosphorylation mediated by the GSK3 kinase, and the cell front to which internalized N-cadherin is directed via endocytic recycling (190). At the cell front, N-cadherin undergoes actin-dependent retrograde flow along the lateral edges of the cell, which is driven by F-actin attachment to AJ complexes that include catenins (for example, p120-, α-, and β-catenin) and N-cadherin. Arrows indicate the direction of cadherin movement. Disruption of N-cadherin treadmilling impairs collective locomotion of astrocytes providing evidence that the retrograde movement of adherens junctions and the recycling of N-cadherin to the cell front are keys for the acquisition of collective modes of locomotion.